


Burned My Tomorrows

by Chiomi



Series: Kill Your Heroes [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Identity Reveal, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiomi/pseuds/Chiomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Picking up the pieces involves letting in a lot more people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dreams all fade away

**Author's Note:**

> 8tracks: http://8tracks.com/chiomi/kill-your-heroes-series
> 
> The series overview will have a summary of past events in the notes and a preview of upcoming events in the description, if you want hints or a refresher. Also, since PTSD requires the persistence of symptoms over time to be diagnosable, we’re just gonna say the kids are having a bit of a hard time right now. Oh, and our babies are missing something big - don’t worry, they’ll realize eventually.
> 
> Updates will be around 2k, at least once a week.

Marinette led Adrien in through the side door rather than the bakery. She didn’t feel like explaining to her parents right now. And it would feel like she was rubbing in Adrien’s face that she had two parents rather than one who was - off. She stopped off in the kitchen and grabbed sweets for Tikki and glasses of juice for her and Adrien. “What does Plagg eat?”

Adrien, staring out the kitchen window, startled at her voice.

“Cheese,” Plagg said plaintively, emerging from Adrien’s shirt.

Marinette grabbed the chunk of brie still in the fridge and added that to the tray. “Okay, let’s go up to my room.”

Adrien followed her, but his presence behind her was sort of blank, like he wasn’t really there. Marinette set the tray down on her desk, and when she looked around at Adrien, he was still just standing there. She set her purse on her chair and grabbed one of the glasses of juice. They’d just have to share, evidently, because she couldn’t herd him around with both hands full. She took his wrist, because it seemed intrusive somehow to take his hand again. He didn’t resist at all, following her to the chaise and sitting when she tugged him down. She took a sip of juice, and it was unbearably sweet and cool in her mouth after crying.

She passed it to Adrien, and he sort of stared at the glass before he took it, then nearly dropped it. He drained it all in one go and set the glass on the floor. Marinette shifted, bringing one knee up on the chaise so she could sit fully facing Adrien, more securely enveloped in the chaise. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.

He tilted abruptly sideways, basically throwing himself against her. Marinette was glad she was already braced. “I don’t know, either. Is it okay if we just - stay here, for a while?”

“Of course,” she said. “Um. Unless you mean exactly like this, because your elbow is really pointy.”

He let out a choked laugh, and they rearranged themselves, ending up with Adrien on his side, arms around her waist and head on her ribs. He had to curl his legs up so they didn’t hang over the edge of the chaise, which meant that Marinette’s legs were folded over his, her feet tucked under his top calf. It was probably going to be a disaster to untangle themselves. Marinette wasn’t sure quite what to do with her arm, but ended up laying it across Adrien’s back, hand fisted in his overshirt.

Adrien sighed and nuzzled into her, his head very close to her breast. Marinette knew, in a disconnected way, that normally the proximity would have her blushing bright red and stuttering at the very least. Right then it just felt like comfort. They didn’t talk. Marinette wasn’t used to sitting still, though, much less having idle hands. She ended up running her fingers through Adrien’s hair. He sighed again, going boneless, and buried his face in her sternum. She knew they should talk about - a lot of things, her identity included. But it was so much easier to just not acknowledge the morning and fall asleep in the safety of the midday sun.

\--

Tikki woke them up when the light was just starting to slant towards afternoon. “You have about an hour before your parents expect you back from school, Marinette.”

Marinette hummed and snuggled closer to warmth. Then she woke up enough to remember that she was snuggling Adrien, to remember the morning. She deeply regretted waking up.

Adrien’s arms tightened around her, and he nuzzled against her like an oversized cat. Which he was, in some respects, but he was also nuzzling her breast. Marinette was suddenly very awake and blushing very hard. “Adrien?”

He tilted his head up at her and blinked sleepily. He didn’t seem to have a sudden moment of realization or jolt to awareness, and Marinette realized that it was more like a cat’s slow-blink than a sleepy boy’s. That made her heart trip, because she’d thought that he’d at least have some problems trusting her once he knew she’d kept her secret even when he’d been in such distress. “So you’re Ladybug,” he said, sounding relaxed and faintly dreamy.

“Yeah.” She watched him carefully.

“I’m glad it was you,” he said.

“Oh,” she said, and her hand tightened involuntarily in his hair. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Do you think my mom’s okay?”

Marinette hesitated. Physically, she was fine. Miraculous healing also seemed to heal some of people’s memories of what they themselves had done while akumatized, though that might be a side effect of the akuma itself. “I think she went through a lot.”

She could feel the way he swallowed hard, throat moving against her chest. “I should contact Natalie. Do you think your parents would let me stay here for a few days?”

She wanted to reassure him that he’d be fine at home. She wanted him to be able to have a happy reunion with the mother he’d been robbed of. But she’d sent him home to Hawk Moth, and, while she was sure he’d go home if she asked, she couldn’t bring herself to ask him to go back to that haunted mausoleum. “Yeah, I think so.”

He hugged her tightly. “Thank you.”

“Of course,  _ Chaton _ ,” she said. She tried to think through what else was happening, what else they would need to do, but she kept coming back to blood on marble. The weight of everything she couldn’t deal with was oppressive. “Tikki, what do we do next?”

“I’m not sure, Marinette,” Tikki said, floating closer to the chaise. “Nothing like this has happened before. There are akuma everywhere, but nothing’s happened yet.”

“What about - everything else?” Marinette ran a hand over Adrien’s head so her meaning was unmistakable.

There was a loud snort from her computer desk, and Plagg zipped over to join them. “We might try, kid, but humans aren’t really our area of expertise. You’d honestly be better off asking your parents or your friend Alya.”

“Marinette’s parents,” Tikki tacked on, as if it weren’t perfectly obvious.

Adrien looked at Marinette. “Should we tell them?”

She’d spent so long not telling them anything as a way to keep them out of danger and keep them from worrying. But everything had gotten so complicated, and she wasn’t remotely qualified to decide what to do. Akuma she pretty much had a handle on. Death that stuck around and trauma that had made people inexplicably frightening were so far out of her experience that they were in the area on the map labelled ‘here be dragons.’ “Yeah. I’ll ask them to close up early.”

He didn’t let go. She waited a moment. “I need to get up.”

Adrien groaned, and then untangled himself from her enough that he could just fall back on the floor. Marinette smiled at him as she rose. “Maybe wash up, meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes?”

He nodded.

Marinette went downstairs, stopping to rinse off her face in the bathroom. She still felt grimy, but at least her face wouldn’t alarm her parents when she went into the bakery. There were a couple customers browsing and another one finalizing a purchase when she slipped in, so she went to her dad where he was wiping down his workspace. She wrapped her arms around him, and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders. “What are you doing home?”

“I skipped school,” she mumbled into his apron. “Can you and Mom close up and come upstairs to talk?”

He frowned, concerned. “Okay. You want to close things up back here while I help your mom?”

Marinette nodded and started putting things away and cleaning up. Her dad went up to the front, whispered in Sabine’s ear, and helped one of the remaining customers. They hurried through the last couple and closed up, leaving the baked goods in the cases to be dealt with later. When they got upstairs, both of them were surprised to see Adrien standing awkwardly in the kitchen. Sabine frowned at both of them. “You both skipped school?”

“Um. You might want to sit down?”

Sabine collapsed into a chair, hand over her heart. “Are you pregnant?”

Marinette gaped. “What? Maman, no!”

Tom sat heavily, taking Sabine’s hand. “You’re sure?”

Marinette felt a blush bursting forth violently on her face. “Very sure! How did you even get there?”

“You look like the world has ended! And you have a boy!” Sabine, distraught, lapsed into Mandarin. Marinette caught only a few words, about sneaking around and lies. Adrien obviously caught more, a blush rising to mottle his face bright red. He made the mistake of replying in the same language, and then he had the full force of Sabine’s attention.

Tom stretched out his free hand to Marinette, and she took it. He tugged her in to wrap her in a one-armed hug. “You’re okay?”

“Mostly?” She raised her voice. “It’d be better if we could talk about what’s actually going on.”

Sabine narrowed her eyes at Marinette, then said one last thing to Adrien in rapid-fire Mandarin. “Now sit,” she said, gesturing to the chair across the table from Tom.

Marinette sat, too. She took a deep breath. “Um, so, I know I’ve maybe been a little weird the last couple months? But there’s a good reason for it.” She lost her nerve, and twisted her fingers together. Adrien just watched her helplessly.

Sabine softened. “What is it, mon chou?”

“I’m Cat Noir,” Adrien said.

Marinette darted out her hand to clutch his. “And I’m Ladybug.”

Silence fell, smothering as a blanket.

“You mean that,” Tom said, and it sounded like he meant it to be a question but couldn’t quite get it there.

Marinette nodded.

“You’re heroes,” he said, and it didn’t sound like praise.

Her hand tightened on Adrien’s.

“There’s a reason you’re telling us now,” Sabine said. She jerked her head at Adrien. “And a reason he’s here.”

She felt him quail, and ran her thumb over the backs of his fingers. He pulled himself together, and it was weird to see him pull up an impenetrable shiny wall over the ball who’d been crying on her earlier. He took a deep breath. “My dad, Gabriel Agreste, was Hawk Moth. He’s the one who made all the villains we’ve been fighting. I only found out a couple days ago.” He stopped, and his shiny facade threatened to crack.

Marinette finished for him. “He died this morning. We also rescued his mom. Things are going to be complicated. Can Adrien stay here tonight?”

“Of course,” her parents said in tandem.

Marinette relaxed fractionally, and felt Adrien more or less collapse.

Tom patted Marinette’s hand. “I’m glad you felt you could come to us, but why didn’t you tell us before?”

“You could have been hurt,” Sabine said. “We’d never have known.”

Marinette took her hands back, folding them in her lap. “Knowing could have hurt you, though. And who we are - we heal. Everything that happens when we’re in a fight, the Ladybug magic cures.”

“Plus the suits make sure that none of the hits hurt that much,” Adrien offered.

Sabine reached out and smoothed a hand over his hair. He went very still, and his eyes went wide. “Adrien, you’re a child. No one should have been hitting you at all.”

“Mom,” Marinette said quietly. “No one else could have been fighting the akuma like we have.”

“Why?” Tom’s voice had a plaintive edge to it.

Marinette reached up to touch her earrings. “Um. We got these things - Miraculous? And then our kwamis showed up, and -”

“Stop,” said Sabine. “Kwamis?”

“Um -”

“I’ll get them,” Adrien said, and stood, his chair scraping loud on the floor in his rush to escape.

“They’re magic,” Marinette explained helplessly.

Tikki and Plagg preceded Adrien down the stairs. Tikki waved. “Hello!”

Tom blinked several times. “I haven’t even offered to make you food. I’ll make something. Adrien, what you you like? You two - I - what do you even _eat_?”

“I’m very fond of your macarons, M. Dupain,” Tikki said.

“Cheese,” Plagg said.

Sabine was watching Tikki raptly. “I’m glad you weren’t stress-eating and hiding it from us, mon chou. I’d been worried about how many sweets we’d been going through.”

Tikki flew over to hover near the table. “Did they ask you what to do?”

“We’d just kind of been explaining things,” Marinette said.

Sabine took a deep breath and shifted her attention, squaring herself across the table from Marinette. “Okay. What do you need help with?”

It was so strange, but such a relief, to have adults who knew all the information offer advice. While Tom made their strangely-scheduled meal, Sabine had Adrien call Natalie on Marinette’s cell. He ended up pacing the living room on the phone with her for several minutes, talking about things like ‘press conference’ and ‘paparazzi.’ Marinette didn’t eavesdrop too much, anyway, because her mom was talking her through the akuma situation now that Hawk Moth was dead, about scheduling patrols more stringently around homework, and keeping a curfew.

When Adrien was done on the phone, he passed it back to Marinette and collapsed in a chair. “My mom had a press conference. There’s paparazzi all around our house.”

“Ah,” Sabine said. “Then you’ll be staying the weekend.”

Tom set down a dish of green beans and another of chicken. “I can lend you clothes if you can’t go back for any.”

“No, I - I presumed? Or, well, I can’t go back right now. Natalie’s sending the Gorilla with a bag.” Adrien rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Good,” Sabine said. “No child needs to deal with paparazzi. Now, eat.”


	2. The edge of the future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been talking to one of the people I survived high school with about plot etc., hammering things out, and there’s now gonna be at least one more story after this. Also my brain is acting up again, so I can no longer guarantee anything about the schedule.

Friday felt roughly three weeks long. By 7pm, Marinette was exhausted and just wanted to sleep for roughly a day and a half. Sabine clucked at her. “You both look exhausted. Go to bed.”

Marinette stumbled through getting ready for bed, and it felt weird to be getting ready for bed while it was still light out, but every feeling was filtering through heavy static. Friday had been very, very long. Still, she hesitated at the bottom of the steps to the loft. It felt weird to let Adrien too far away. Unsafe. Even though Hawk Moth was dead and the threat was ended and they were safe in her house where no one would look for him, it didn’t feel right.

Adrien stood in front of the chaise, holding his pillow. He rubbed his free hand over the back of his neck. “I know this is kind of weird, but -”

“Oh, me. Just go cuddle, you twits. It’ll make it easier to sleep, and you’re going to do it anyway, so please don’t poison me and Tikki with your awkwardness getting there.”

Adrien gestured to Plagg and shrugged.

Marinette nodded, and stretched out a hand to him. Tension she hadn’t noticed went out of his shoulders. He came over and took her hand, and she lead him to her bed.

It was something she’d fantasized about, but the tone was all wrong. They weren’t - there was nothing romantic in it whatsoever. Everything was just horrible, and they knew each other inside and out. Even though they’d explained most of what had happened to Marinette’s parents, they were the only ones who knew that Adrien had killed his dad. Well, other than his mom. But the real point was that they were holding a last terrible secret, and it wasn’t coming between them; it was a shared burden to carry. Physical proximity made it easier.

They climbed under her covers and curled up face to face, foreheads nearly touching. Marinette wrapped one of her arms around his waist, and he wrapped an arm around hers. It made the space between them close, the air recycled, but it was comforting. She’d thought she would be kept awake by everything that had happened, by seeing a woman half-liquefied and a man dead, but it felt like only a few heartbeats before she was dragged down into sleep.

She slept deep and dreamless well into the dark. She wasn’t sure initially what had woken her, was just seized by an inchoate sense of panic. She shoved against the body next to her moving jerkily. As she came further awake, she realized it was Adrien, shaking in the throes of some nightmare. She took deep breaths to try to calm her thundering heart, then grabbed Adrien’s shoulder.

He jerked away, colliding with the wall, and stared at her with panicked eyes. He took a shuddering breath.

She took his hand and laced their fingers together. He flexed his hand in hers, tendons stiff and fingers still twitchy, then gripped her hand tight. Marinette closed her eyes again, trying to push away her irrational panic. It was just Cat Noir, just having a nightmare. It was fine. If anything was really a problem, Tikki would have been the one to wake her.

Marinette hadn’t managed to fully suppress all her worry by the time she fell back to sleep, and her dreams were troubled. She slept through ‘til morning, though, and woke tangled with Adrien.

Breakfast was quiet, just the two of them because Saturdays were busy in the bakery. It was still strange to have Tikki sit openly with her at the table. “I’m going to text Alya,” Marinette said, breaking the silence.

“Huh?”

“We should see if she’s free and meet up so we can talk to her.”

Alya texted back a demand as to why Marinette was even awake, since it was 9am on a Saturday. Marinette smiled at her phone. “She’s free, we just need to grab coffee and meet her in the park.”

The morning outside was sunny and clear, redolent with early summer. It felt - inappropriate, with what had happened. Marinette took Adrien to the cafe just down the street, which sold her parents’ baked goods and gave all the Dupain-Chengs a discount. He insisted on buying the three cafe au lait, and on carrying the Alya’s drink over to the park.

Alya blew in a few minutes later, looking frazzled. “What even happened yesterday?” she demanded as greeting.

Adrien and Marinette exchanged a glance. Adrien handed Alya her to-go cup. “Hi,” he said.

Alya waved a hand dismissively. “Yeah, hi, whatever. There were akuma spotted all over the city! No one’s been attacked yet, except, like, what happened to your dad?”

Adrien looked at the ground and Marinette jumped in. “Um? I actually -” She wanted to take the pressure off Adrien, to get what was necessary out of the way before what could only hurt. She took a deep breath. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

“Mari?”

Marinette squeezed the cup between her hands, hard enough that the lid tried to pop off. She pressed it back down. “I’m Ladybug,” she said, unable to get her voice above a whisper.

“What?”

Marinette cleared her throat and made herself look Alya in the face. “I’m Ladybug. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

Alya went pale, and sat so abruptly that it was more a controlled fall. “What.”

Marinette took a deep breath, and felt Adrien’s hand on her shoulder, warm and comforting. “I actually tried to give you my Miraculous when we first met, but you’re the one who convinced me I should try, and I needed to keep my identity secret to keep everyone safe.”

“But - why would you give that away?” Alya sounded genuinely baffled. “And you had to know I’d keep your secret.”

“We’d only known each other two days and you were talking about revealing my identity to the entire internet,” Marinette pointed out, though it felt weak.

“But you’ve known me for almost a year now,” Alya said.

Marinette tried to beg Alya with her eyes. “I didn’t want to put you in danger, but that’s why we’re here now. The stuff that happened yesterday - there’s so much press, and you really are the most popular Ladybug coverage, and we need your help.”

Alya took off her glasses and rubbed both hands over her face, then shoved her hair back. She put her glasses back on and got out her phone and was suddenly transformed into the fierce, focused Alya who ran one of Paris’ most reliable news sites. “Right. Okay. We’re having a long conversation when I can shout at you in private. But what happened? What do you need? I’m guessing your dad was Hawk Moth, Adrien?”

Adrien nodded jerkily, and his hand tightened on Marinette’s shoulder.

“He had Adrien’s mom in a cocoon in the attic, and we got her out and healed her, and now his dad is dead. The akuma all got away, and I have no idea why or how, but I’m worried people will connect them to Gabriel Agreste’s death to the weird Hawk Moth activity.”

Alya waved a hand dismissively. “I already talked about it as a cunning plan on his part, it’ll pass as an active plan for months even if nothing else happens. Also, Adrien, your mom is super scary.”

Adrien shrunk into himself, wrapping both hands around his to go cup. “She didn’t used to be.”

Marinette tilted her head just slightly, asking Alya for clemency. Alya tucked in the corners of her lips, disapproving but silent. Yeah, okay, it was concerning, but they had other problems. There was a hierarchy of disasters at the moment, and Mme. Agreste could wait. It would probably come up at Alya and Marinette’s later conversation where Alya berated Marinette for not trusting her. Alya shifted her shoulders. “Okay, so, I’ll redirect any attention that comes to you, and I’ll keep your dad’s name out of it, Adrien. But that can’t have been all you wanted to talk about.”

Marinette shrugged. “That’s what we needed, I think. But we - I - also have no idea what to do, and I wanted to talk it over with you.”

“And I killed my dad,” Adrien blurted.

The three of them froze, stricken. Marinette wrapped an arm around Adrien, and Alya surged upright to come over and hug him. “Oh, Adrien, I’m so sorry.”

Wrapped up by both of them, he started shaking. Alya looked over at Marinette and mouthed “Nino?”

Marinette nodded. It seemed like they were telling the entire world, but it was still so few people, and Adrien needed someone who was unquestionably on his side. Marinette had Alya and her parents, and she knew they’d support Adrien, too, but it was different having someone who would be there for Adrien first. Marinette’s own inclinations were irrelevant, especially since she’d have to watch her own back as a civilian.

Alya typed one-handed on her phone behind Adrien’s back as Marinette rubbed a hand up and down his arm comfortingly. After a moment, Alya’s phone buzzed. “Nino says we should go over to his place. That sound good, Adrien?”

Adrien nodded, and sniffed hard. Alya let go of him, but Marinette didn’t, because she could see he was still packing away the broken pieces of himself. She opened her purse, and Tikki passed her tissues. She took them and passed them to Adrien, and he wiped his eyes and blew his nose.

The walk to Nino’s took a little while, and the visibility of the effort Adrien was putting into holding himself together faded. Nino let them into the building before they could even buzz, and they trooped up the stairs. Nino was waiting for them, door already open. “My parents are out with Lina, come in.”

He caught Adrien as he walked by, and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug. “I’m sorry about your dad, dude.”

Adrien hugged him back, but still said, clearly and firmly enough that it would carry, “I’m not. He deserved it. It needed to happen.”

Alya glanced at Marinette, but Marinette could only shrug. Feelings were complicated, and so was the situation within the Agreste family. Her mom had told her when her great-aunt Adele had died that there was no one right way to grieve, and that had to hold true no matter what other circumstances applied.

Nino stepped back, shifting his hands to Adrien’s shoulders. “Why?”

“He was Hawk Moth,” Adrien said grimly.

Nino paled, going ashen around the edges. “He was trying to beat the hell out of you for your Miraculous this whole time?”

“What,” Marinette said, too shocked to make it a question.

Adrien’s mouth dropped open.

Alya wasn’t robbed of her ability to express herself by surprise. If anything, it lent power to her shriek. _“What!?”_

Nino blinked at them. “I sort of thought you knew I knew? I mean, at least Marinette and Adrien. Like, you guys aren’t exactly subtle with your timing when you sneak off. I thought we just didn’t talk about it.”

“No,” Marinette said distantly. “No one was supposed to know anything.”

“Okay,” Nino said. “Why don’t we all go sit down in the living room. Do you want snacks?”

Plagg emerged from Adrien’s shirt. “Since it looks like the cat’s never even been in the bag, I almost feel like I should have popcorn to watch this show. Cheese, though, if you have it.”

Tikki phased through Marinette’s purse. “Plagg! Don’t be rude. Being open and letting people in is always hard.”

Alya was opening and closing her mouth, for once at a loss. “Tiny - flying -”

“Why don’t we all go sit down,” Adrien suggested.

“Yeah,” Marinette said. It was going to be another long, strange day. But it had to be better than the day before.


	3. Ambushed by a lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be the fic where they got, like, supports in place and confirmed that they have people who love them and nothing traumatic happens. The last bit was a lie. Next fic’s gonna be the last, but I kind of feel like I’ve gone wicked AU so it might be short. Idk - let me know if you’re just here for closure or want extra doses of psychological trauma along the way.

Sunday morning, Plagg woke them up just after the crack of dawn. “Okay, so, you’ve had your human trauma time. But where’d you stash the butterfly Miraculous? We kind of want to talk to Nooroo.”

“I don’t have it,” Marinette said, abruptly very awake and horrified. “Adrien, do you?”

He looked sick. “No - I - there was blood on it.”

“Right,” Marinette said, sitting up and shoving her hair out of her face. “Maybe Master Fu has it? He’s always so on top of things that he could have grabbed it on the way out.”

“Master Fu was the - the guy. That you called?”

Marinette nodded. “I think he knows a lot about the Miraculouses.”

“Okay,” Adrien said. “We should go visit him.”

“Yeah. Do you want the first shower?”

They sorted out getting ready to go, and it was strange because Marinette was used to starting her day so long after her parents that she didn’t have to share the bathroom at all. Plus, Adrien used more hair product than her entire family put together, and she knew for a fact that his moisturizer cost more than her allowance for three months. It was sort of surreal.

Marinette checked the hours for Master Fu’s business on her phone, and if they left immediately they’d arrive right as he opened. Which would hopefully mean he didn’t have any clients at least for a few minutes and they’d be able to talk. She popped in to the back of the bakery on the way out. “We’re just going to run a few errands! I’ll see you later.”

Her mom waved her off, and she and Adrien set out. It was going to be a warm day, but it was still early enough to be pleasant. They hopped a bus in the right direction and rode it in silence, sticking closer together than they needed to. When they got to the small shopfront, Master Fu was just flipping over the sign. He nodded when he saw them, and pulled the door open. “Come in.”

“Thank you for saving my mother,” Adrien said in lieu of greeting.

“Come in and let me close the door,” Master Fu said, some of the habitual serenity of his voice gone pointed. He locked the door behind them and flipped the sign again.

“Thank you,” Adrien said again.

“You’re welcome. Now, what brings you here today?”

Marinette scuffed her toe over the mat in the entryway. “Well, I wanted to thank you, too, but we were also wondering if you picked up the butterfly Miraculous? Plagg wanted to talk to Nooroo.”

Master Fu took a step backwards and put a hand on the wall to steady himself. “You don’t have the Miraculous?”

Plagg flew out, keeping Adrien between himself and the windows. “Well, where is it, then?”

Marinette felt sick. “Could it - could it still be on the body?”

Adrien paled, then shook his head, more in rejection than denial. “It can’t be. I mean - the police. It would have gone back to my mom, right?”

“Go,” Master Fu said, and his voice cracked like a whip. “Find it. Get it back. There has already been far too much chaos with Nooroo in the hands of a madman.”

Marinette nodded, and turned to fumble with the door. “We’ll do it. Thanks for your help, and I’m sorry we let it get away.” She got the door open, and Adrien spilled after her. The door slammed behind them with an emphatic jingle.

The didn’t speak until they reached the corner.

“Is he always so . . .” Adrien trailed off, reluctant to be say anything unflattering about the man who’d helped save his mother.

Marinette shook her head. “He’s been really nice every other time I’ve talked to him. But I think - I think we messed up. What if someone even worse got their hands on the butterfly Miraculous?”

Adrien laughed. “I think it’d be hard for someone to be worse than Hawk Moth.”

They walked in silence back towards Marinette’s home. The sun shone bright and relentless. They’d gone a couple blocks before Adrien said, “Do you think my mom took it?”

Marinette stopped, horrified. If anyone could be worse than Hawk Moth, Marinette had a sinking feeling it would be Adele Agreste. She hadn’t come back right. “We should ask.”

Adrien stopped a couple paces in front of her, and didn’t turn around. “I should ask. You should look for it.”

Marinette raised a hand, got it halfway to his shoulder, then dropped her arm. He didn’t seem like he would welcome the contact. “Okay. I can do that. Should I go in your window?”

He nodded jerkily, then turned around, facing her even if he wouldn’t raise his face to look at her. “Their bedroom is at the exact opposite of the house from mine - mirror layout. Her study is on the second floor, second door on the right. I don’t know where it would be, but that should give you a starting point while I ask.”

She nodded and took his hand to get him to start walking again. Just a week ago, the idea of holding his hand would have made her giddy, but now it was more of a lifeline. They walked in silence as the sun rose higher. A couple blocks away from the Agreste mansion, Marinette spotted a news van. Adrien spotted them about the same time and pulled her back to the corner and out of sight. “Okay, you can’t come with me.”

“What?”

“Paparazzi. They’re not - it’s unusual, but Natalie made sure I knew what to do. But you don’t, and having them hound you makes it way easier for both of us to slip in our identities.” He shook out his shoulders, then adjusted his hair in the reflection from the window of the business they’d stopped in front of.

Marinette glanced involuntarily back towards the van. “Rooftops for me?”

“And around, maybe,” he suggested, straightening his shirt. He smoothed his fingers over his eyebrows. He took a deep breath. “Okay. Contact Plagg if you find anything? Otherwise I’ll meet you either in my room or back at the bakery.”

“Your room,” Marinette said. “Good luck.”

He smiled, then sauntered around the corner with a poised casualness that would look great on camera.

Marinette backtracked until she could duck behind a building, then transformed and took to the rooftops. The news van was only the start of the chaos around the Agreste mansion. She would have thought that two days - but no, there was a police car out front, and a trio of journalists lurking on the sidewalk across the street. A photographer smoking a cigarette a few feet away had already spotted Adrien and was hurrying towards him. Around the block it was, then.

Marinette landed in Adrien’s room and listened for any activity in the rest of the mansion. She didn’t expect to hear much, but it still didn’t hurt to be cautious. Slipping out into the hall, she made her way to the opposite end, staying as close to the shadows as she could. She could hear a trio of voices from the foyer, so that was hopefully everyone.

The master bedroom was even bigger than Adrien’s, but somehow even more soulless. There was a nightgown on the bed, a brush askew on a vanity, but otherwise everything was grey and purple and perfectly aligned. How could Mme. Agreste sleep in here, after everything that had happened? Marinette shivered. It looked like a perfect showroom of a bedroom for a couple very much in love, with matching walk-in closets that were both fully stocked. Had M. Agreste kept everything exactly the same? What was wrong with this house? She rifled quickly through the jewelry in the closet with the dresses, figuring that was the place to stash a brooch. There were a variety of pins, but mostly small or obviously the wrong thing. There was a locket, too, one she could have sworn that she’d seen M. Agreste with. She opened it, and there were pictures of a man and a woman facing each other. Both their faces were scratched out. The jagged white edges of the scratches looked new, not mellowed by age at all.

Marinette swallowed, and put it back very carefully exactly where she’d found it. She searched elsewhere, searched all the drawers and then the other closet and then the vanity, the bathroom cabinets, the nightstand. Nothing. The study was her next stop, but just outside the door she heard voices - Adrien and his mom. Maybe he could persuade her to hand it over. Part of her wanted to burst in and demand that she end this, that she give it up so they could leave. But this was Adrien’s mom, and he’d missed her, and he loved her.

Marinette slunk back to Adrien’s room. She released her transformation and sat on the couch, knees drawn up beneath her chin.

“Mme. Agreste isn’t well,” Tikki said. “But she should get better now that she’s back in the world!”

“You really think so?” Marinette wanted to think so. Her phone buzzed with the pattern that meant Alya had texted her, so she slipped it out of her pocket.

_ >akuma by the seine _


	4. This wounded heart arise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First of a new breed of akuma.

Marinette transformed quickly and used her yoyo to contact Cat - he wouldn’t be able to answer as Adrien, but Plagg should at least let him know he had incoming. Adrien really needed to get his phone back.

After it had rung several times, Marinette hung up and checked Twitter. Adrien would either know or he wouldn’t: she needed to see if she could afford to wait for him. The akuma hashtag wasn’t blowing up as much as usual. Apparently there wasn’t nearly the usual level of destructive rampage, just - caricatures? Okay, yeah, an artist akuma was turning people into caricatures of themselves. There were even tweets from victims.

Marinette started to pace, but she still waited for Adrien. It didn’t look like anyone was getting too upset about this akuma. Adrien hurried in a few moments later. “What’s up?”

“Akuma by the Seine,” she said, already headed for the window.

Cat Noir followed a moment later, and they took the same circuitous route off the property that Marinette had taken to get in. The rooftop route was faster than any other mode of transportation in Paris, so it didn’t take them long to get to the Seine, approximately near the bridge Marinette had seen on Twitter. There was a lot less screaming than usual. And some of the screaming sounded like - laughter?

In unspoken accord, the two of them landed well clear of the affected area. The victim was pretty obviously an artist who’d been doing commissions for tourists. He was still doing them, in fact. What the hell?

Marinette straightened her shoulders and did her best Ladybug stride. “We’re going to need you to stop.”

“Ladybug!” The caricaturist lit up at the sight of her, and reached for his pastels.

“Whoa,” Ladybug said, hand hovering over her yoyo. “Let’s maybe not do that?”

“Huh?” He looked down, then to the most recent person he’d apparently drawn, now taking selfies of their comically enlarged ears. “Oh,” he said, sounding tremendously disappointed. “I guess. Do - do you actually have to beat me up?”

“No,” she said, shocked. “Or, uh, I don’t think so? I mean, not if you hand over whatever the akuma landed in.”

He handed over his sketchbook, and Marinette ripped it, very aware of the people watching her and of Cat Noir alert and wary behind her. A purple butterfly fluttered out, aimless. Marinette purified it and watched it fly away. So did everyone else, half of them still caricatures. It was deeply awkward to realize that she had no way, yet, of turning everyone back to normal. “Um. Lucky charm.”

A cube a few inches to a side popped into existence. She caught it easily and threw it up in the air again. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The ladybugs swooped out as normal, returned everything to the way it was before. It was anticlimactic. A couple of the tourists looked disappointed. It was the most unnerving aftermath to any battle to date - including cradling a crying Adrien, though that had been Adrien’s battle rather than hers or theirs. The sketchpad was whole again. Marinette handed it back to the caricaturist.

Cat Noir came to her rescue, hand on her arm as he said, “We need to leave now, my Lady.”

“Right,” Marinette said. Her earrings beeped. This was the most awkward thing that had ever happened to her while she was in the suit. Ladybug swung away, and Cat Noir followed after.

They regrouped on a roof a few blocks away. Marinette sat behind a chimney, as invisible as possible from the street, and opened her sandwich bag of cookies for Tikki to snack on so they could get down and got home later.

“There’s no way we’ll be able to pass that off as part of a plot for very long,” Adrien said.

“Yeah,” Marinette said, wrapping her arms around herself. “He seemed so harmless, you know?”

“Not everyone will be,” Adrien said. His cat ears flattened to his head. “It’s always been tied to emotion and intention, right? And my da - Hawk Moth made sure it was always really negative emotions, and it was wrapped up with evil intentions. But people have negative emotions even when there aren’t supervillains, so some of the newer akuma victims will probably be dangerous, too.”

Marinette leaned her head back against the chimney, the brick comfortingly hot under the midday sun. “I can’t believe I’m actually hoping for dangerous akuma.”

Adrien shrugged. Being suited up made the gesture almost liquid. “It’s easier to fight them when they start it, and it’d make hiding the fact that Hawk Moth was Gabriel Agreste easier.”

Marinette sighed. “Yeah. I guess we should get home.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, but didn’t move. He looked down at his hands and tugged at the cuff of one of his gloves. He took a deep breath, and his voice when he spoke was wretched. “Though, I mean, as much as I wish it was, your home isn’t actually my home.”

Marinette stiffened. A chill ran down her spine, fast and clammy like someone had dropped an ice cube down the back of her shirt. He couldn’t be talking about going back to that house. “We’re happy to have you, though.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a half-assed attempt at a smile. He rose from his crouch and came to sit next to her, leaning in close so their sides were pressed against each other. Marinette leaned her head on his shoulder, not quite sure who was comforting who. The contact would start to get sweaty fast, but she just - cuddling was good. For both of them. He rested his cheek against the crown of her head. “It’s important to keep up appearances. Like, to protect our secret identities, mostly, but I think everyone at the house will be on board with it. We’ll still see each other at school, and I can come over, maybe? Plus patrol.”

“Of course you’ll come over,” Marinette said firmly, trying very hard not to feel like he was saying goodbye. Even if he went back into that house without backup, he’d make it out. His mom wouldn’t actually do anything terrible to him. It wasn’t actually some kind of cursed mausoleum, no matter how much it felt like it. She let out a breath, trying to release some of her tension with it. “I just worry about you.”

He nudged her shoulder. “Hey, I was living with a supervillain before. Can’t be any worse than that, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was . . . slightly unhappy with the division of emotional labour in this fic? Which made it hard to keep momentum. But idk, w/e, I'm pretty happy with how it ended up. Everything is vaguely upsetting and nothing is resolved! One more coming, but it'll be at least October. Seriously. I have a trade show later this month that I need to do a ton of prep for and then blog about extensively. If I post anything new (ie not a Road to Corinth update) before October I am to be shot.
> 
> I already know which song it's gonna be themed around! Feel free to guess.
> 
> I think I had something else I wanted to say? I don't remember what. Thanks for all of the kudos/comments/bookmarks - the support fills me with warm fuzzies.


End file.
